Joseph Dowler, the Lafayette man convicted in 2003 of child abuse resulting in the death of his 9-week-old son, died earlier this month while serving a 60-year prison sentence.

Dowler was 45.

Colorado Department of Corrections officials said Dowler died Nov. 6 at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Canon City. The department did not release any details on Dowler's death.

The Fremont County Coroner's Office will conduct an autopsy to determine an official cause and manner of death.

On Oct. 3, 2002, Dowler and his then-wife, Audra, brought their infant son, Tanner, to a Lafayette clinic because he was lethargic and would not eat. Investigators said the child was suffering from second-degree burns, dehydration, an apparent cigarette burn to the head and brain damage caused by lack of oxygen.

Tanner was taken off life support and died Oct. 13, 2002. An autopsy concluded that Tanner died from a head injury. He had 15 broken bones and burns on both of his feet at the time of his death.

Police and prosecutors said Tanner's death was the result of repeated abuse by Joseph Dowler, who admitted to losing his temper with his crying baby and shaking him on a couple of occasions in the family's cramped trailer.

He was convicted of seven counts of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury but was found not guilty of first-degree murder.

Audra Dowler -- who filed for divorce in 2004 -- pleaded guilty to child abuse and negligence for failing to get medical treatment for her son and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released after serving about three years.

"There are never winners in a case like this," said Colette Cribari, a Boulder attorney who was a prosecutor for the Boulder County DA's Office at the time. "Even now, (Dowler's) death is sad. It was a sad life."

Cribari said she still remembers seeing Tanner in the hospital while both of his parents were in custody.

"He was just lying on this bed by himself, no balloons or stuffed animals, just a little baby in a diaper," Cribari said. "I remember his eyes were shut tight but he had this little tear in the corner of his eye. He was just this little, tiny guy. Even now talking about that ... something like that stays with you forever."

After Tanner's death, it was discovered that Joseph Dowler's father and stepmother, Woody and Lea Dowler, had contacted social services with concerns that the couple could not care for a child. The referral fell through the cracks, and a Colorado Department of Human Services Child Fatality Review Team later determined there had been "critical errors and serious gaps."

"He just did not take care of that child at all," Cribari said of Joseph Dowler. During the autopsy, the coroner said many of the injuries to Tanner were weeks old.

"From the day he was born to the day he died, he suffered," Cribari said. "That's the sad part of it."

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